Posts tagged political advocacy
Journalists are hyping up a supposed golden age for unions while ignoring their corruption and declining popularity.
September 12, 2024 // The mainstream media’s coverage of Big Labor clearly misses the mark. Beyond recent labor reporting centering on hot-button events such as organization efforts at Starbucks and Amazon amid 2023’s “hot labor summer,” coverage of unions creates a false sense of reality. Headlines such as “Unions targeting Big Business: Disney, Mercedes-Benz, CVS face organizing campaigns,” for example, suggest sweeping unionization efforts across the private sector. But in the pharmacy industry, just 30 CVS pharmacists in Rhode Island and Las Vegas voted to join the Pharmacy Guild, a fraction of the 30,000 employed by the drugstore giant.
Commentary Is Big Labor Reducing Worker Wages, Opportunities for Growth?
September 3, 2024 // But the Biden-Harris administration’s embrace of Big Labor—as in big national labor organizations, as opposed to small, local unions—actually hasn’t helped workers as unionized workers’ wages have fallen behind the wages of nonunion workers over the past four years. Unlike small local unions that are in better positions to represent the unique needs of their members and that may even have productive relationships with management, the Big Labor movement is increasingly putting politics, power, and one-size-fits-all policies above the personal well-being of many workers.
Illinois Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Teachers spend a lot, but not on teachers
August 8, 2024 // The federal filings of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, reveal questionable spending, with little spent on representing teachers, millions spent on politics and deficit spending while the big boss got $500K.
Matt Kane: Better For America Ep 298 | Vinnie Vernuccio (Podcast)
August 6, 2024 // In mid July, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. It was the first time that a leader of the union ever addressed the GOP convention. However, the Teamsters have also requested a speaking slot at the DNC later this month, meaning a lot is still up in the air regarding their support. Vinnie Vernuccio, the president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker joined Matt Kane on the Better For America podcast to share what he makes of this notworthy development. Vernuccio says that while O’Brien’s presence was significant, he feels his messaging “whiffed,” as his remarks could have been mistaken for ones targeted at a DEMOCRAT convention. Vernuccio also wonders whether the Teamsters are truly considering a Republican endorsement, or if they are simply hedging their bets due to their expectation that President Trump will win the November election.
Commentary: What Does a Likely Harris-Trump Matchup Mean for Labor?
July 25, 2024 // Those in organized labor who publicly support Harris see her as likely to advance Biden’s agenda. The Biden-Harris administration also tapped outspoken pro-worker former officials from California to lead the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, tasked with protecting workers.
Opinion: Trump, Republicans Must Resist Dem-Funding Union Leadership’s Attempt To Con Them
July 3, 2024 // A new report from the Center for Union Facts, first reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation, shows that the Teamsters spent $9 million on politics between 2019 and 2022. Of that, a staggering 99% funded Democrat-aligned groups and anti-Trump media outlets. More than $2.6 million in Teamsters political donations went toward registered Democrats and Democratic campaign arms. The Teamsters also funded anti-Trump activist groups that plan to bury a second Trump presidency in litigation. Given that nearly all of the Teamsters political spending went to Democrats and far-left causes, it would be reasonable to assume that rank-and-file union members uniformly vote Democrat. That is not the case: In 2020, 40% of households with a union member voted for Trump.
EXCLUSIVE: Powerful Union Suddenly Courting Republicans Spent Millions On Liberal Advocacy, New Report Reveals
June 20, 2024 // One of the biggest chunks of the Teamster’s advocacy spending, worth roughly $2.5 million, went toward “registered Democrats, Democrat Party-funded initiatives, Democratic campaigns and organizations that focus on advancing the interest of the Democratic Party,” according to the report. Recipients of union funds included The National Democratic Club, a social organization in D.C. where liberal elites meet to hobnob, failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ voting rights group, Fair Fight Action, and the inaugural committee of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The over $2.6 million in political donations made by the Teamsters’ PAC this election cycle have also skewed heavily to the left, with the vast majority of their funds going to Democrats and Democratic-aligned PACs like the Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association, according to Federal Election Commission records.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CUTS CLASS TO LOBBY, COSTING TAXPAYERS UP TO $141K
May 17, 2024 // Teachers can partake in political advocacy on their own time, but this day of action occurred during regular school hours and at taxpayer expense. It doesn’t help that most of the students they left behind are unable to read or do math at grade level, and could have benefitted from a normal day of instruction. Chicago Public Schools has seen steady budget growth combined with dwindling enrollment. CPS’ per-pupil operational spending is $24,132, up more than 50% from $15,878 in 2018. CTU held a similar event with students during the March 19 primary election when they took students out of class to hear from proponents of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax hike, were told how to vote and then marched to the polls. The tax hike failed.
Opinion: This Looming Regulatory Change Is Endangering Your Entrepreneurial Livelihood. Here’s What You Can Do About It.
March 7, 2024 // On the independent contractor language, the U.S. Department of Labor acknowledges in its new rule that there may be "conceptual overlap" with the ABC Test's most harmful section to independent contractors. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the "DOL's claim that the regulation does not reflect the ABC Test leaves something to be desired." The independent contractor CRA was introduced in the House and Senate in early March with more than 70 co-sponsors and needs more in both chambers to advance. Federal lawsuits have been filed against both federal agencies, trying to stop these policy changes through the courts. But, given the snail's pace with which the wheels of justice can turn, it's important for Congress to act.
Taxpayers funding teachers unions? In Idaho, it’s all too common
February 5, 2024 // The Boise School District goes a step further by providing teachers a monthly salary enhancement for “professional activities” that just happens to approximate the cost of union dues and can be conveniently deducted from their paychecks and forwarded to the union by the district. At least 51 school district teachers union contracts include provisions providing paid time off for teachers who serve as union officials to engage in union work and advocacy on-the-clock and at taxpayer expense. Some contracts even specifically permit teachers to lobby the legislature on the union’s behalf while on paid release from their teaching duties. Again, while the direct cost to taxpayers is difficult to measure precisely, it could easily range from $500,000 to $1 million per year. And at least 31 school districts provide the teachers union with preferential, no-cost access to and use of school facilities and communications well beyond what community groups or even competing unions are entitled to.